16th Century Map Surprisingly Modern

A 1539 map by Swedish cartographer Olaus Magnus surprises scholars with its
depiction of the North Atlantic Ocean.
The Carta Marina, drawn in 1539 by Olaus Magnus, features sea snakes and
other monsters frolicking in the North Atlantic, but it also shows something
else that has made modern cartographers sit up and take notice: a remarkably
modern depiction of sea swirls which "closely match a giant ocean front shown
in satellite images."

Magnus, a Swedish exile to Italy, was known for filling his maps with
depictions of all manner of men, monsters, and other details, leading scholars
to wonder if the sea swirls were accidential whimsey or true cartographic
elements.

"Their location, size and spacing seem too deliberate to be purely artistic
expression," Tom Rossby told BBC News Online. "Nowhere else on the chart do
these whorls appear in such a systematic fashion."